Tumblr Is Interviewing People To Be David Karp's 'Sheryl Sandberg'

Nicholas Carlson, provided by

Published 12:51 pm, Thursday, January 24, 2013

Tumblr has hired a head-hunting firm to help CEO David Karp find a COO, multiple sources tell us.

One person interviewed for the job said he was asked if he is ready to be Karp's "Sheryl Sandberg," a reference to the Facebook COO who helped Mark Zuckerberg transform that company from a small startup into a global corporation.

Another source, this one close to Tumblr, says Karp hasn't decided to hire a COO for sure yet – that he is "Sheryl-curious."

In an email, Karp tells Business Insider that Tumblr is "spending more time meeting great executives than we have in the past."

"The specific roles are still an open discussion, but you should certainly see us filling out the team even more this year."

Karp says, "I have to emphasize just how well our management team has come together here. We've added a lot of leadership over the last couple years that is taking Tumblr further than I ever imagined."

A source close to Tumblr investors tells us the board wants Karp to hire a COO so that person can help him quickly staff up the company.

ComScore says the sites Tumblr powers had almost a hundred million visitors in December. Meanwhile, Karp tells us Tumblr still has just 145 employees.

As you can see from this chart, Tumblr is currently incredibly "lean" relative to the size of its user-base.